The Muslim girls in Karnataka started demanding they be allowed to attend classes in burqas. Now, this demand has spilled over to many schools and colleges in multiple states.
Pakistani activist Malala Yousafzai supported the demand for Muslim girls in Karnataka to attend classes in a burqa.
On Tuesday (February 8), Malala posted on Twitter, “College is forcing us to choose between studies and the hijab”. Refusing to let girls go to school in their hijabs is horrifying. Objectification of women persists — for wearing less or more. Indian leaders must stop the marginalisation of Muslim women.”
Netizens reminded her of her own writings and speeches in which she had categorically said the burqa was a symbol of oppression. In her book ‘I Am Malala’, she has written, “They were forcing women to wear Burqas. Wearing a burqa is like walking inside a big fabric shuttlecock with only a grille to see through and on hot days it’s like an oven. At least I didn’t have to wear one.”
Political commentator Aditi Patwardhan said that burqa should have no place in any educational institution. Quoting Malala’s tweet, Patwardhan wrote, “Why don’t you return to Pakistan? Remember why you left in the first place? Hijab/burka has absolutely NO place in an educational institution. People who want to wear it should go to an institution that doesn’t follow any dress code.”
Exposing the hypocrisy of Malala, the BJP leader Manjinder Singh Sirsa said that she never spoke about the forced conversion of Hindus and Sikhs in Pakistan. In a Twitter post, he wrote, “Strange! Malala never spoke on other significant issues like forced conversion of minor Hindu, Sikh girls in Pakistan but today she is tweeting without verifying facts!!”
The BJP leader Kapil Mishra alleged that Malala was running the Islamic Jihadi agenda through her social media post. “Muslim Girls getting killed in Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan for not wearing Hijab. Hindu, Sikh girls getting killed in Pakistan for just being Hindu. She has never uttered a single word on real issues. Here she is running radical Islamic Jihadi agenda.”
On October 9, 2012, Malala was shot in the head by Pakistan Taliban in a bus in Swat district in Pakistan for campaigning for girls’ education. She shifted to the United Kingdom and is staying there. She was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014.
Netizens reminded her what Babasaheb Ambedkar had written about Muslim women and burqa. Dr Ambedkar had written, “They lag behind their sisters from other communities, cannot take part in any outdoor activity and are weighed down by a slavish mentality and an inferiority complex.”
News anchor and Editor Anand Narasimhan said was Malala planning to join al Qaeda/ISIS/Taliban? In a Twitter post, he wrote, “It starts with a hijab, then it progresses into separate classrooms and finally into no schools for girls… haven’t we seen this in Afghanistan and Pakistan? Wasn’t Malala the victim of this very thought progression? Or is she planning to return her Nobel & join Al Qaeda/ISIS/Taliban?”
Calling women demanding burqa a problem, journalist Aditya Raj Kaul said that those supporting the demand for burqa in classrooms are normalising the suppression of women. “Those who until five days ago were opposing Hijab/Burqa tooth and nail and won’t touch Hijab ever in their lives are today supporting Hijab for school/college going Muslim girls in India. You are the problem. You are normalising oppression of Muslim women. Empowering radicals,” he said in a Twitter post.
